Affinity Publisher (v1): Let page number skip every second page

[Drachen]

Hello,

(I use the german version of Affinity Publisher, so sorry if words in my explanation don't match to english version).

I created a project for a card game with one master page for the front of the cards and one master page for the back of the cards. I use them alternating between front and back (front: 1,3,5,7 ... back: 2,4,6,8, ...).
Now I want on the front of the cards a number (like a page number), but it should ignore every even page (back of the card), so it only counts the front side. Right now it counts every page, so that e.g. card #2 is card #3, card#3 is card#5 and so on.

How can I set the page number behaviour, that it only counts only every odd page up?

Thanks for help.

[GarryP]

The Page Number field that you are currently using only relates to the actual page number on which it is being used so, for example, the Page Number field will always show 5 when it is used on page 5 – I’m not aware of any way to stop/change this.

You might be able to do what you want via the Section Manager – each card as a different section, giving each section with a name of the card number and inserting the Section Name as a field instead of the Page Number – but it might be a long process if you have lots of cards – I’ve never tried it.

You might be able to do what you want with the Data Merge functionality but I can’t give any further advice on that other to search these forums for data merge or calendar and see what has already been produced.

[walt.farrell]

It might also be done by having a linked text frame for the pseudo page-number, just wide enough for one number, and inserting a text string into the first page's number frame. The text string would have the form "1 2 3 4 5 ... n". A technique that has been mentioned several times in the forums previously.

[thomaso]

As variation of Walt's hint you can create a temporary text string that contains all required numbers followed by a paragraph break or even frame/page break and let this flow across the entire document in an according master page text frame. Like so …

[Drachen]

Thanks, I think this is the right way. I also find some tutorials for linking texts... but only for manually linking text from one text frame to another. But how do I create a text frame on a master page, which is kinda linked to itself, so that when I use instances of the master page they link always from one text frame to the next one?

[thomaso]

After pasting all text into the wanted text frame on page 1 hold the shift key pressed when clicking the triangle symbol to create the text flow.

[Drachen]

Doesn't seem to work in the right way. When I create the text frame on the master page, go to page 1 in the empty text frame, copy the text in there (in my case "01\n02\n03 ... \n99" with \n stands for break) and then press on the red arrow with shift, it creates 98 new pages with only the front master page template and pushes all former created front and back cards after it.

Maybe a solution, if I start the project from new, but not if I already created all the cards with different content and it also doesn't alternate between master page 1 (front) and master page 2 (back). Also transforming every second of the new created pages from "front" to "back" master template, doesn't delete the number on it.

btw: I watched this tutorial and it seems you really can't automatically connect text frames in a master page template and you have to do it manually in the end.